IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v49y2017i30p3005-3015.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health insurer market power and employer size: an empirical evaluation of insurer concentration and wages through compensating differentials

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher S. Brunt
  • John R. Bowblis

Abstract

This article explores the differentiated effects of health insurer market concentration on net compensation of employees across distinct firm sizes. Consistent with the existing literature evaluating insurer market concentration and the theory of compensating differentials, we find evidence of higher premiums and reduced net compensation for employees in markets with more concentrated insurers. Furthermore, we find evidence that the magnitude of these effects is distinctly smaller for large employers. This implies that mergers of large health insurance companies may have a significant impact on small businesses but that the effect is mitigated for larger employers.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher S. Brunt & John R. Bowblis, 2017. "Health insurer market power and employer size: an empirical evaluation of insurer concentration and wages through compensating differentials," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(30), pages 3005-3015, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:49:y:2017:i:30:p:3005-3015
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2016.1251569
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2016.1251569
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036846.2016.1251569?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leemore Dafny & Jonathan Gruber & Christopher Ody, 2014. "More Insurers Lower Premiums: Evidence from Initial Pricing in the Health Insurance Marketplaces," NBER Working Papers 20140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pietro Tebaldi, 2015. "Estimating Equilibrium in Health Insurance Exchanges: Analysis of the Californian Market under the ACA," Discussion Papers 15-012, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    2. Amanda Kowalski, 2014. "The Early Impact of the Affordable Care Act, State by State," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 45(2 (Fall)), pages 277-355.
    3. Ericson, Keith M. Marzilli & Starc, Amanda, 2016. "How product standardization affects choice: Evidence from the Massachusetts Health Insurance Exchange," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 71-85.
    4. Andrew Stocking & James Baumgardner & Melinda Buntin & Anna Cook, 2014. "Examining the Number of Competitors and the Cost of Medicare Part D: Working Paper 2014-04," Working Papers 45553, Congressional Budget Office.
    5. Keith Marzilli Ericson & Amanda Starc, 2015. "Measuring Consumer Valuation of Limited Provider Networks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 115-119, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:49:y:2017:i:30:p:3005-3015. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.